Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S4W-17046

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 23 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning will introduce the senior phase benchmarking tool.

The senior phase benchmarking tool will go live in August 2014. The Scottish Government is working closely with local authorities, secondary schools and other partners throughout the development stages. This includes making available early prototype editions for stakeholders to familiarise themselves with the features and provide feedback. All local authorities can already access an early edopter edition. Local authorities and secondary schools will receive access to a preview edition at the end of September 2013. This will be followed by the release of an updated prototype in spring 2014 and then the live version in August 2014.

Question reference: S4O-02365

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 September 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what steps Police Scotland is taking to reduce the number of accidents involving cyclists due to dangerous driving.

Question reference: S4W-16569

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) individuals and (b) companies it has recruited outside of the national strategy for the procurement of Business Management Consultancy Services in each year since 2007-08.

Question reference: S4W-16568

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) individuals and (b) companies it has recruited outside of the Temporary and Interim Staff Framework in each year since 2007-08.

The number of individuals recruited outside of the Temporary and Interim Staff Framework is as follows:

	2011-12	2012-13
Number of individuals	82	84

Information required to identify individuals recruited outside of the Temporary and Interim Staff Framework prior to 2011 is not held.

Information on the number of companies recruited outside of the Temporary and Interim Staff Framework is not held centrally. The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Question reference: S4W-16570

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost of contracts awarded outside of the (a) Temporary and Interim Staff Framework and (b) the national strategy for the procurement of Business Management Consultancy Services has been in each year since 2007-08.

The Scottish Government does not hold any spend figures for the costs of contracts awarded outside the Temporary and Interim Staff Framework. Therefore we are unable to say what the cost of contracts awarded outside of the Temporary and Interim Staff Frameworks are.

The cost of contracts awarded outside of Business Management Consultancy Framework is not held centrally and could not be obtained without disproportionate effort.

Figures on spend through the Temporary and Interim Staff Framework and Business Management Consultancy across the Scottish public sector are as follows:

Temporary and Interim Staff Framework

Year 1 – 2010-11	£2,719,506.71
Year 2 - 2011-12	£16,677,302.34
Year 3 - 2012-13	£38,352,883.47

Business and Management Consultancy Framework:

Year 1: 2010-11, £363,035

Year 2: 2011-12, £58,610

Question reference: S4W-16653

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Mary Scanlon on 27 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how much has been paid in lodging fees for objections to private bills in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S4W-16652

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 August 2013
Current Status: Answered by Mary Scanlon on 27 August 2013

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how the lodging fee for objections to private bills is set.

Rule 9A.6.5 sets out five criteria of admissibility for objections to Private Bills, of which the last is that the objection must be “accompanied by any fee for lodging objections that may be determined by the Parliamentary corporation”. The SPCB made a determination under this Rule on 8 May 2001 (announced in the Business Bulletin on 17 May 2001), and set £20 as the fee for lodging an objection. The fee has remained unchanged since that date.

The paper considered by the SPCB in May 2001 recommended a £20 fee by reference to the Procedures Committee’s 2^nd Report, 2000. In paragraph 116 of that report, the Committee considered evidence for and against a fee. It ultimately decided to support its introduction, being persuaded that it would “discourage frivolous objections and could, where appropriate, encourage people e.g. residents in an area, to lodge one objection covering the same points rather than each individual resident lodging an objection”.

The Procedures Committee’s report was subsequently agreed by the Parliament without division on 23 November 2000.

Question reference: S4W-16181

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 June 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 July 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses have been registered as sole traders or limited companies by people aged 16 to 24 in each of the last three years.

The information requested is not available.

The official source for measuring the number of registered businesses (including sole traders and limited companies) is the Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR). The IDBR does not hold information on the age of business owners.

Self-employment data, from the Annual Population Survey (APS), is generally used to provide an indication of business ownership by age.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-16180 on 24 July 2013, which provides APS estimates of the number of 16 to 24 year olds self-employed in each year from 2010 to 2012. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-16180

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 June 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 July 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many people aged 16 to 24 have been registered as self-employed in each local authority area in each of the last three years.

Statistics on self-employment by local authority area are available from the Annual Population Survey (APS). However, the APS statistics for self-employment by local authority area for the specific 16 to 24 age group are not statistically reliable. The results for Scotland for the 16 to 24 age group, which are deemed to be of sufficient quality, are provided in the following table:

Self-Employment Level and Rate, 16 to 24 age group, Scotland, 2010 to 2012

Year	Self- Employment Level	Self- Employment Rate
2010	7,700	2.3%
2011	9,900	3.0%
2012	12,600	4.0%

Source: Annual Population Survey, January to December, Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. The self-employment rate is the self-employed as a proportion of those in employment.

2. Self-employment levels are rounded to the nearest hundred.

Question reference: S4W-16182

Asked by: Kezia Dugdale, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 June 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 July 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how much financial assistance it has provided to people aged 16 to 24 who have started businesses; how many people, and what average (a) grant or (b) loan was awarded, in each of the last three years.

In terms of 16 to 24 year olds specifically, the Scottish Government provides ongoing support to the Prince’s Trust Youth Business Scotland (PTYBS). In December 2010 the Scottish Government allocated £740,856 from European Regional Development Fund to PTYBS in order to support at least 1000 new businesses and create over 2000 jobs over a three year period. A further £1 million was invested into the organisation’s revolving loan fund by the Scottish Investment Bank in June 2012. This is expected to create at least 400 businesses and over 600 jobs.

Data on the amount of loan and grant funding given out by PTYBS over the last three years, and the number of young people supported during that period, is provided in the following table:

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

	Number of Awards	Total Value	Number of Awards	Total Value	Number of Awards	Total Value
Will it Work Grant (up to £250)	275	£67,010.27	377	£92,096.40	328	£80,841.02
Start Up Grant (up to £1000)	90	£47,075.00	94	£58,150.00	118	£80,920.00
Loan (up to £5000)	285	£863,690.00	289	£1,062,480.00	264	£888,319.00

Grant Average	365	£312.56	471	£318.99	446	£362.69
Loan Average	285	£3,030.49	289	£3,676.40	264	£3,364.84

Young People Assisted*

556

658

603

Note: *It should be noted that some people receive more than one award. Hence, in any given year, the number of people assisted will be slightly less than the sum total of awards made.